Batman Odyssey has been made larger. We have just penned an agreement for part 2 of the Odyssey which will be another 150 story. We are very excited on how this project is moving along . We are gathering together the top talent of the field to work with Neal on the inking chores of this fantastic series. I will keep you posted on when DC will be putting it out. Neal handed in the plots and scripts for the new second half of “Batman Odyssey “this week. And I decided to show a little Scott Williams inking on Neal.

Vince: Well that was another question I was going to ask: what other projects you're working on that you would like to talk about.

Neal: Well, that's a pretty big one.

Vince: Yeah, that would be great. I would love to see that because there are very few things that I look forward to every month, and I find myself reading the Showcase titles and things like that because I get excited, I have fun. I think that comics should touch you and thrill you, and overall they should be fun. And that's what I got when I read comics like yours.

Neal: Well, these are going to be like that. The first issue... Frank Miller has convinced me that he oughta dialogue, or at least re-dialogue the books, so I'm gonna have him do that. So the first issue is a 50-page portion of the larger story, and we tentatively call it Batman: Odyssey. It's a pretty big story, and pretty nifty, and very emotional, and very powerful. And basically what it is is that kind of challenge where you kind of go, oh, you think Neal is gonna come back, you think he's gonna screw up. Oh my goodness, what if it looks like that old stuff, it'll be kind of old fashioned. This is gonna be bad isn't it? This could be cool. Maybe he's just been holding back all this time, because he's got into a medium where he really didn't get to stretch his muscles. Hmm-mmm-mm. Wouldn't that be cool?

How is your project with Frank Miller going?
I’m on the second graphic novel and I’m moving toward the third.
When will we see it?
I think probably as I finish the third, which should be in a couple of months, they’ll decide when to put it on the schedule.

Is it going to be like “All Star Batman” in tone? Or more serious?
More like “All Star Batman” I would say. Not quite as crude, but I think Frank may whip a little crudeness into it. I think my Batman is not quite so hard on Robin. He’s very serious and dealing with problems that affect him personally so it’s a much more personal Batman. The characters I’m involved in take their stories much more personally and much more seriously. It’s not “here’s a case” it affectively deals directly with Batman. It’s stuff that goes on around him. It asks certain questions. Here’s one, who is doing more to help mankind, Batman or Bruce Wayne? Is Bruce Wayne doing more important things then Batman? It kind of turns what he’s doing as Batman into a hobby. If Bruce Wayne feeds a million people in Africa, how insignificant is what Batman is doing?
He keeps the streets safe.
He keeps the streets safe but he doesn’t save a million people who might be starving. Which is more important. If somebody doesn’t get mugged you train more cops. I’m not saying that one is more important. I think it’s a question that needs to be raised. That’s one of the things we deal with in the story.

Looking good. Ofcourse some people will now make jokes about "Dick Grayson. Age Twelve" but this isn't Miller's comic so the editor can't just be okay with Miller doing his own gig and i doubt Miller would put his own Batman for Neal's work.

__________________"I'm not always hooked on a feeling but when i am, i'm high on believing!"Thoughts & Rambles